CARICOM steps up its anti-drug campaign June 26 is International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking

Jun 20, 2010

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) – This year the Caribbean Community Secretariat will partner with the Ministry of Health and Social Transformation, Antigua and Barbuda, to observe the day with a week of activities which focus on the use of Edutainment in primary drug prevention.

Edutainment focuses on educating through entertainment and makes use of dramatic and theatre elements such as tableau, thought tracking, role playing and games. In addition to the drama strategies, the programme also pulls on aspects of the visual and other performing arts such as singing and dancing in conveying messages geared primarily towards youth audiences.

This focus forms part of a broader strategy to build the capacity of CARICOM Member States to develop and launch their own public education campaign on the mis-use of drugs.

To this end, therefore, Antigua and Barbuda will be the venue for a five-day training intervention designed to assist Member States to use edutainment strategies transmit relevant and appropriate messages on drug prevention for their targeted publics.

Titled, the Use of Edutainment for Primary Drug Intervention, the workshop will treat in-depth with topics such as, the Nature, Principle and Practice of Edutainment; Edutainment and Culture and the Use of the Visual and Performing Arts in Edutainment – practical approach.

Participants drawn from 15 Member States will get hands-on experience on how to develop their own edutainment campaigns, which will include the production of five-minute edutainment productions for performance on June 26.

The five-day training intervention which commences on June 21 will culminate on June 26 – International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking – with live street theatre production in the Market Square in St Johns, Antigua.

The International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1987 as an expression of its determination to strengthen action and cooperation to achieve the goal of an international society free of drug abuse. The Day has been observed annually since 1988 on 26 June to raise awareness to the devastating social impacts of drug abuse and illicit trafficking. The designated theme for the year is Think Health; Not Drugs.